Familiar faces to bring powerful plays to Fortune Theatre

Two iconic New Zealand
plays are gearing up to visit to Dunedin’s Fortune Theatre
– just in time to wish the theatre a belated fortieth
birthday. Verbatim (by William Brandt, devised by
Miranda Harcourt and William Brandt), and Portraits
(by Miranda Harcourt and Stuart McKenzie) are on a
regional tour to theatres, prisons, and schools around New
Zealand.

Bringing the work back home two decades after
they were created and first toured. Last Tapes Theatre
Company and JustSpeak are on the road with these seminal
works, challenging audiences with a message about our
society, and how we engage with issues around the criminal
justice system. The touring group features an incredible
cast embodying multiple characters to paint pictures of
violent crime and its endless repercussions.

In the early
1990’s pre-eminent actor Miranda Harcourt and Wellington
playwright William Brandt visited prisons and homes across
the country and collected stories of crime from those who
felt the most tragic impact of it. From these interviews,
Brandt and Harcourt created Verbatim, a story of
murder told through the words of dozens of offenders, their
families and families of victims. Harcourt toured the play
to every prison in New Zealand, as well as schools and
theatre’s across the country. Now, twenty years on, a new
generation of theatre practitioners are bringing these works
to a new audience, encouraging communities to question the
way in which our country deals with crime and the shattered
lives it leaves behind. Taking to the stage as all six
characters in Verbatim is Renée Lyons, fresh off a
national tour of her stunning solo show Nick: An
Accidental Hero.

From the same interviews that
Verbatim was created, Portraits was written by
Miranda Harcourt and her husband Stuart McKenzie.
Portraits is a harrowing look into four lives
affected by the rape and murder of a teenage girl in a small
New Zealand town. Screen favourites Jodie Rimmer (Agent
Anna, Nothing Trivial, In My Father’s Den) and Fraser
Brown (Field Punishment Number One, Erebus: Operation
Overdue) bring powerful and intimate performances to
these four roles – roles that are difficult - “where
acting meets real life. The most challenging work of my
thirty year career” says Rimmer. They are also roles that
have had profound personal impact on these experienced
practitioners. Brown says “this material is incredibly
powerful and speaks to me deeply as a father. Portraits has
been and continues to be an amazing experience”.

For
many of those involved with the tour, visiting the Fortune
Theatre will mean a happy return to familiar territory.
Director Jeff Szusterman directed My First Time there
in 2009 with wife Jacque Drew in the cast. For producers
Robin and Danielle Kelly, this production is a return home
to the place they grew up, and the theatre that introduced
them to the performing arts. And of course Miranda Harcourt,
who was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit
for her services to theatre, has a long history with Fortune
Theatre. Many fantastic photos of her past performances
there have been emerging over its fortieth birthday
celebrations. Harcourt says of Verbatim and
Portraits “these plays changed my life, and this is
a truly brilliant new production of them!” Don’t miss
your first opportunity in over ten years to see them.

“VERBATIM is a success not because of the quality of
the pieces, even though these are of a high quality with
stunning performances, but because of what it provokes in an
audience.”

The Lumiere Reader, July 2014.

“…this is theatre at its most raw and
effecting.”

Metro Magazine, Nov 2013.

“Touching, affecting, moving …”

Theatreview, Nov 2013.

“Fraser Brown's
stillness as both offender and victim's father is
compelling, while Jodie Rimmer manages to age 20 years with
the fall of her mouth.”

NZ Herald, Nov 2013.

Tickets can be purchased from
www.fortunetheatre.co.nz

Warning: Please be advised
that these works contain some potentially distressing
material, including coarse language and descriptions of
sexual violence.

Reviewed by Michael HorowitzLocated even further south than temperate Noumea, Tonga’s tiny island of ‘Ata might have become the jewel of the kingdom’s burgeoning tourist industry. Imagine a Tongan resort that would not only be mild in winter, but pleasant in summer. More>>

Reviewed by Michael HorowitzLocated even further south than temperate Noumea, Tonga’s tiny island of ‘Ata might have become the jewel of the kingdom’s burgeoning tourist industry. Imagine a Tongan resort that would not only be mild in winter, but pleasant in summer. More>>

The New Zealand landscape undoubtedly is very beautiful, but so is the British one, and my attachment to this country is much more about some particular places, and the memories and emotions that in them combine, than it is about the landscape as a whole. More>>

Suzanne Aubert, the founder of the Sisters of Compassion New Zealand’s home grown order of Sisters, has been declared ‘venerable’, a major milestone on the path to sainthood in the Catholic Church. More>>

Ernie Merrick has stepped down from his position as Wellington Phoenix FC Head Coach. The club would like to thank Ernie for his contribution to Wellington Phoenix and wish him all the best in his future endeavours. More>>

60s New Zealand music Icon Ray Columbus has passed away peacefully at his home north of Auckland... Ray Columbus enjoyed more than three decades at the top of NZ entertainment as a singer, songwriter, bandleader, music manager and TV star. More>>

Howard Davis: The NZSO's adventurousness was richly-rewarded, as the deeply appreciative Wellington audience was given the opportunity not only to see a couple of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest films, but also to hear fine renditions of two of Bernard Herrmann's most accomplished film scores. More>>